Stephen A. Smith, the flagship talent at ESPN, recently told Front Office Sports that he would “love to” join ESPN’s iconic “Monday Night Football” team.
The problem is that multiple members of the MNF team do not want the host of “First Take” because they don’t believe he has the acumen to cover and discuss football, according to a report by MSN.com and the U.S. Sun. Furthermore, they believe Smith’s reputation as a bombastic barker is incongruent with the even-leveled temperament and discourse that characterizes the show.
According to the U.S. Sun, some at ESPN “don’t want to see Smith on their coverage.” His ability to work with others was also questioned.
“Stephen A Smith said that he is looking to do more NFL and eyeing ‘Monday Night Football,’ but I think he doesn’t realize that nobody wants him here. The guys that cover NFL, the main analysts and specialists absolutely have zero interest on having him working with them,” the U.S. Sun states in its report.
“He isn’t the guy that they really like, and they think that he isn’t legit to do so, and that he could stick with ‘First Take’ and basketball.”
The scathing assessment of Smith’s alleged deficiencies in the eyes of some of his colleagues continues:
“Nobody wants him covering football, and many of the top analysts were talking about since he did that interview where Smith said so. They were laughing about it, some were saying that ‘there is no way he joins us, he is not one of us football guys and he wants the whole attention and all the spotlights.’ His reputation of not being a team player is a huge red flag…The workers talk to each other, they absolutely dislike him and don’t want to deal with him.”
